Chinatown was once a vice-filled place where human lives were bought & sold

Today, the Lai Chun Yuen theatre sits quietly in the middle of Chinatown, surrounded by the excitement of tourist-friendly Chinatown. Via . Advertisement It isn’t hard to imagine then, that close to a century ago, the same Chinatown was brimming with the same frenetic energy. But it was a vice hub. Charmaine Leung, the daughter of a brothel owner along Keong Saik Road wrote an account of her and her mother’s growing up years in one of Singapore’s most infamous red-light districts at 17A Keong Saik Road . Leung’s story is part bittersweet, part enlightening, and presents a well-paced guide to a Chinatown that’s largely forgotten. Here are some of her insightful descriptions of old Chinatown: A market for everything Leung’s mother’s first encounter in the 1930s with Chinatown began with the defunct Lai Chun Yuen theatre, or more specifically, the streets around the theatre. ...